[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 38 (Monday, March 1, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S912-S913]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Raising the Minimum Wage

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, back in 2017, before anyone had ever 
heard of COVID-19, our Republican colleagues could hardly vote fast 
enough for a $1.9 trillion tax bill. Most of the benefits of that bill 
went to the wealthiest people in America--$1.9 trillion in tax cuts, 
most of it to the ultrawealthy and large corporations. And of course 
there was little talk about the deficit and the debt when that was 
going on.
  Now we are in the midst of a pandemic, and COVID-19 has killed more 
than half a million Americans. Americans are hurting. Our economy is 
hurting. Millions are unemployed. And our friends across the aisle are 
asking how little we can get away with doing at this moment in time. 
They want to know how much we can cut from President Joseph Biden's 
American Rescue Plan. Can we cut money to open schools? Can't we just 
wait? Let's just wait and see what happens. That is their question. How 
about cutting funds to help keep families from losing their homes? How 
about cutting the funds for vaccination sites? How low can we go?
  One point nine trillion dollars in tax cuts for millionaires and 
billionaires--no problem. A President who denies the truth about a 
pandemic as it rages across America--no problem. But when Americans 
elect a new President with a mandate and a plan to finally break the 
back of this pandemic, get our economy back on its feet, get our kids 
back in schools, and actually help American families, suddenly a lot of 
folks on the other side of the aisle have lost interest.
  Do you remember last year? I do. We discovered this COVID-19 and 
started to worry about it, as we should. In March of last year, we 
passed a bill that cost almost $2 trillion--the largest spending bill 
in the history of the United States--under President Trump, and it got 
96 votes in the Senate--96 votes. Every Democrat and every Republican 
Senator who voted, voted for it, and I was one of them. Did I stop and 
say: Wait a minute; President Trump may get credit for this. No. We had 
an American crisis, a challenge, and we needed to respond to it.
  And then what happened in December of last year, while President 
Trump was still in office? The second COVID-19 rescue plan came 
through, some $900 billion. I was one of those who were part of drawing 
it up, and I voted for it, no questions asked. We were still in the 
midst of a pandemic. The economy was flat on its back. I didn't care 
that Donald Trump was still President; there was work to be done for 
America. Ninety-two Senators voted for that; 96 in March, 92 in 
December under President Trump.
  Well, how many Republican Senators are now stepping up to help us 
with the American Rescue Plan that President Biden has proposed? I am 
still waiting. None so far. Now it has become a partisan exercise to 
talk about dealing with the real pandemic and economic crisis of this 
country.
  What is going on in this Chamber? Have we decided now, since we have 
a new President of a different political faith, that the other side 
cannot support efforts to increase the amount of money for vaccines and 
distribution across America, to send a cash payment to families who are 
struggling to get by, to give unemployment benefits to millions of 
Americans when those benefits are scheduled to run out in just 2 weeks?
  All we hear from the other side is: You know, we may be overspending 
here. We should have thought of this before.
  Yes, you should have, and you didn't under a Republican President. 
Now it has become an issue.
  A year ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, 96 to zero for a $2 
trillion COVID relief plan. Maybe if we had had an administration that 
wisely managed the COVID response, we wouldn't have been in that mess. 
Maybe if we had had a President who for the first year of this 
coronavirus wasn't making up stories that it is going to go away; it 
will disappear by Easter; it won't be a problem if everybody would just 
take a shot of Lysol; a new chemical I have discovered some of my 
friends are taking and all the rest--remember that? Remember those 
press conferences? And what was going on while the last President was 
ignoring the reality of that COVID-19 pandemic? America was getting 
sick, and Americans were dying.
  We have 5 percent of the world's population and 20 percent of the 
COVID-19 deaths. What is going on here in a great nation like America? 
Well, for a year, we didn't get it together because we didn't have a 
President who accepted reality. Now we have a President who accepts 
reality and wants to do something about it. He was elected to lead, and 
he wants to lead.
  Where is the Republican support? Democrats were there for the Trump 
plan; Republicans aren't there for the Biden plan. We wasted time and 
resources, but now President Biden wants to turn it around.
  The American Rescue Plan, proposed by President Biden and passed by 
the House of Representatives last week without a single Republican 
vote, no Republican support for it, has the support of 80 percent of 
the American people--overwhelming majority of Democrats and 
Independents, even Republicans. It turns out the only people in America 
who are against this approach of taking this pandemic seriously are the 
Republicans in the House of Representatives and apparently in the 
Senate.

  Every day this Senate delays passing the Biden American Rescue Plan, 
more small businesses close their doors, workers lose their jobs, 
parents turn to food banks and soup kitchens to feed their families, 
and more and more families face homelessness.
  One provision that was included in the House version of the American 
Rescue Plan will not be part of the Senate plan, and that is the 
gradual increase in the Federal minimum wage.
  Now, I understand. The rules in the Senate, particularly when it 
comes to reconciliation, as conceived by the late Robert C. Byrd, are 
almost impossible to understand and defend. I get it. I am not blaming 
any one person for that. That is a reality, and I have been here for a 
while, and I have seen it. So currently we cannot offer the Federal 
minimum wage under the so-called reconciliation bill because of the 
Byrd rules.
  Our Senate Parliamentarian ruled last week that passing a Federal 
minimum wage increase as part of the rescue plan is not permitted under 
those rules. I respect the Parliamentarian's judgment. I may disagree 
and I may be disappointed, but I respect her judgment. Our Republican 
friends should know this, however: Senate Democrats aren't going to 
give up on raising the minimum wage. The issue is not going away.
  Do you know how long it has been since we raised the minimum wage in 
America? Twelve years. Twelve years. The Presiding Officer knows that. 
That is the last time we increased the Federal minimum wage.
  Twenty-nine States have done something about it, but 21 have not, and 
we don't have a change in the Federal law. That is the longest that our 
Nation has ever gone without raising the minimum wage since Congress 
created that wage in 1938.
  During this pandemic, billionaires--people like Jeff Bezos, Elon 
Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg--they have done pretty well. They 
have seen their net worth increase by billions, even tens of billions 
of dollars. How about middle-class families? What do they see? They see 
their savings dwindle, and they find it almost impossible to make ends 
meet.
  Fortunately, as I said, many States are acting. Washington is not. In 
29 States, including Illinois, the State minimum wage is higher than 
the Federal minimum wage. The Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. In 
Illinois, our State minimum wage is set to reach $15 an hour by 2025, 
just like the Biden plan. Most States that have increased their minimum 
wage have done so because their State legislatures have come to the 
rescue. Some States, like Missouri and Arkansas, raised the minimum 
wage by ballot measures.

[[Page S913]]

  Americans support raising the minimum wage.
  I see Senator Leahy from Vermont has come to the floor. Remember when 
we used to have a colleague back there in the back row who would stand 
up and bellow about the minimum wage? His name was Ted Kennedy from 
Massachusetts. He didn't let a month go by or 2 months go by without 
reminding us that a lot of people were struggling to get by in this 
country and we sit here in Washington ignoring it, and that is why he 
would push for an increase in the minimum wage.
  We are told that $15 an hour is exorbitant by some and that it is 
going to hurt the economy. The truth is just the opposite. Raising the 
Federal minimum wage gradually to $15 an hour will strengthen the 
American economy because minimum wage workers are most likely to spend 
the money they get on the necessities of life as soon as they get it--
food, clothing, housing.
  Last week, one of our Republican colleagues gave a speech and said 
that he worked for $6 an hour when he was a kid and he is opposed to 
the $15-an-hour minimum wage. Well, if you took that six bucks an hour 
and just matched it with inflation, it would be up over $15 an hour 
today. Reminiscing about the ``good old days'' of $6 an hour is only 
done by people who don't have to live on $6 an hour.
  Contrary to popular misconceptions, most minimum wage workers are not 
teenagers. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 59 percent of 
workers who would benefit from the Federal minimum wage are women--
women. They are taking a beating in this pandemic. They stay at home to 
watch the kids who can't go to school, trying to deal with daycare that 
has closed down, losing their own jobs--that is the reality.
  Many mothers--two-thirds of them are the sole or primary breadwinners 
in their family and count on the minimum wage. Nearly one in four 
workers who would receive a raise under the $15 Federal minimum wage is 
a Black or Latina woman.
  During this pandemic, America has relied on minimum wage workers to 
do the hard work and dangerous work in the pandemic. Do you want to 
know the real pandemic heroes? Do you want to reduce poverty and raise 
opportunity in America? Pay workers a living wage. Allow workers to 
share the economic prosperity they are creating with their dedication 
and labor.
  At this moment, we may not have a path, but I hope we can find one. 
It is time for us to raise the minimum wage, to give the American 
workers the real wage they need to survive, and to show that we really 
do value the dignity of work.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I want to associate myself with the words 
of the distinguished deputy leader. Nobody has said it better. Nobody 
could. But in the meantime, we have to get up and vote.
  Madam President, I am going to put in a quorum call for just a 
minute, and then I will take it off.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Duckworth). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.